Since Mother Eve in the Garden long ago

You should be able to see it here. Those three Xes on the side are where the teardrop shapes attach, and the one on the bottom (which should also be on the back piece) is where the side of the bottom one is. Let's see ... and the Xes on the back neckline are where these 1" wide straps attach, the top end of one and the bottom of the other. There's a lot of sequinage, but I only marked out where the wide band is towards the bottom on the front.

So, what do you think? If I make it in a pale color and stick a train on the shoulders, will it pass for court dress?

The one thing I hate about Pinterest (and Tumblr) is that the repins aren't attached to the original. I see the benefit to keeping them static as of the time of repinning/reblogging and not allowing other people to basically alter posts on your own board/blog, but I always end up editing mine for dates and then I'm annoyed that inaccurate dates are now on other people's things under my name. THAT DRESS IS 1924 NOT 1923, OH NO.

I would like to see Ruby Bentall play a main character. I like that The Paradise is less lessony than Lark Rise, but she's basically playing the same character only slightly less stupid. Matthew McNulty is so hot, but he's NOT IN IT ENOUGH and I resent that. ETA: the costumes are actually terrible in this, though. Elaine Cassidy's look cheap and the shopgirls' are too 1880s.

Someone posted Hook/Aurora gifs in Tumblr and now I ship it. I don't know why I'm so suggestible.

I think the way I'm doing this ppt is to have each slide with a fashion plate and an extant dress/ensemble from the same year that shows the basic points of the dress in the plate. I think I'm going to try to find more casual photos to work in as well. It's going to be a combination of fashion history mythbuster, dating tutorial [insert joke here], and I guess I'd call it hints on being more accurate/using more variations. So everyone gets something! Not many people seem to really do the 1920s, I think because all you tend to see is robes de style or waistless tubes with straps. So I want to show the blousing and the faux-sashes and the gathering to one side and the long skirts. I'm not sure how many people would necessarily be interested specifically for the purpose of dating, but given how many museum dates for the '20s seem like someone just threw a dart at a timeline it'd probably be useful. I'm not planning to spend much time on the mythbusting specifically - just showing all these examples will basically do it.

This nail polish does not want to come off. It's a light color so I thought it would be easier, for some reason, but it's really sticking. I'm going to try working at it again tomorrow.

I'm thinking of doing the curtain-along ... for a demi-polonaise! I'll probably feel like a chump because everyone else is doing proper dresses, but it would be pretty cool and not stressful. Because I wouldn't need to do bodice stuff, I could play around with cool trim. And it would need a mantelet, but they are not exactly difficult to fit.

Pictures: here, here, and here.

It's kind of the lazy option, but it has the advantage of novelty.

I actually left last night after tayloropolis and Julie's "Telling the Mistress from the Maid" presentation - got home around midnight and went straight to bed. It felt very nice to be back, after my troubles!

(I'm such a dork, on Saturday I went to Julie's presentation on period fabrics and didn't recognize her. I thought she seemed a bit familiar but figured I'd seen her costuming blog or something. After I realized that had been her I understood why I'd felt like I already knew most of what was in her first presentation - of course, we learned it from the same person!)

When everyone else was at the tea party I wandered around the dealer's room. Almost bought The Queen's Servants but decided I was really unlikely to sew any early early Tudor stuff, so I didn't. But at ... a booth (I don't think I picked up their card and now I feel a bit stupid) I did get a very plain 8" hatpin, which I REALLY needed, and a little bag of Amish hairpins, 3" long, which are fantastic. I'm using two to keep up all of my hair right now, I highly recommend them.

While I was sitting in the lobby, reading my 1902 McCall's Magazine, I couldn't help but overhear another attendee on the phone, and I felt so bad for her. I had some troubles with accommodations, but all the classes she wanted to go to had been canceled, and ugh. That must have sucked so much.

I have some pictures I'm going to put up on Blogger. Some of others, some of me. I look great in the ones of me, you should see them. Also, I am in costume! (Look under cut for mysterious details.)

( classes I went to )

Thoughts for next year - definitely stay at wherever it's being held, definitely go to at least two events, definitely make something to wear. It's not on purpose but it always felt a little bit like there was a clear curtain between the people in costume and the people not; partially, I think, because the people who were dressed up knew each other well and those of us not dressed up were newer to the field, but it's also hard to just start chatting about nothing to someone in an amazing Edwardian/Regency/medieval outfit. It's much easier to turn to someone dressed unobtrusively and be like, "hey, it's cold in here, isn't it?"

Also, definitely go to one of SAB's classes. But don't remind her I wrote that babbly email to her after she wrote one to me after that 18cLife fight.

( Written last night when I had no internet )

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Today I am much less bouncy. It was a rough night, there was too much light in the room and the AC was very loud, so there was that. I checked out and don't know what I'll be doing tonight - I don't feel like calling Alex and so I suspect I'll just find another cheap motel.

I'm not sure if I've seen anyone I know. I think I saw mandie_rw but wasn't aware you were wearing that, and same with jennil in a high-waisted corselet post-Edwardian skirt. I'm being a bit awkward and have talked to a couple of other not-in-costume people ... perhaps I will be more social next year, when I'm in a proper outfit myself and also don't feel like a vagrant due to lack of living situation. Dad suggested I look into booking into the Sheraton where the con is, but $209 is the cheapest they go. Ugh. Well, better look for a drugstore to buy toothpaste at before I get back so I can be marginally more hygienic.

Tomorrow I'm going to do a blog post that touches on specific things I've been doing in my internship and museum cataloguing in general, but for now I am too tired. So it will suffice to say that I saw some dolls that were creepy (the headless leather bodies, the otherwise nice but eyeless girl doll) and some dolls that were just depressing because their clothes were deteriorated. Made me think of you, Jennil!

I have to ask for Friday and Monday off for Dress U driving. :/ I hate asking for time off, and it's tempting me to skive off Dress U and I paid $85 for it, I'm not going to just not go but since this Monday is a holiday I'm all, "oh, I can't ask for more time off." So annoying, my brain and my anxieties. I'm feeling a lot more chill about my issues lately, though. My internship is pretty much the embodiment of my issues - I catalogue things, fitting everything neatly into a category and sub-category, sitting in a room full of artifacts by myself with no human contact except when it's necessary. And I love it. So yeah.